St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-01-30
THE FUNNY SIDE
Of a TragedIan:s Life as shown BY
Col SMrleigh:s ExperIence.

Col SurieEgh:s Experience.
No one to see Col. Burleigh in the dgni-
fed part of Othello or Macbeth, or as
Fabian in BARLEY CampbeIl's romantic play
clio" which holds the boards at the St.
PAU Grand this week. would not imagine
that he possessed great fund of spon-
taneOus humor. Such. however. is the
case.
Your humOrist, your comedian, is always
a melancholy fellow, and if your tragedian
is not merry fellow he generally goes mad.
Possibly this is in obedience to the law of
reaction, possibly to accident. but however
it may be explained, and whether if be trne
or not, of ali comedians Or all tragedians,
certain it is that this Col. Burleigh is very
merry fellow.
Years ago before he finally went on the
stage he edited a newspaper in Ann Arbor,
Mich, and the Evening News. of Detroit,
kept corner of its Saturdays issue headed
''Burleigh's Latest"
While Col. Burleigh was in the Michigan
state senate. Guiteau, who afterwards sent
his name ''thundaring down the ages"
jumped board bill at Ann Arbor, and the
mayor and sheriff were both on the lookout
for him. On Saturday afternoon both Of
these gentlemen got a telegram from the
chief of police at Lansing which
read: Search for Guiteau on train reach
ing Ann Arbor at p. m" When the train
pulled into the station policeman searched
each car carefully tor the shyster Guiteau.
The train was detained for fifteen minutes
without result, when the mayor came riding
to the station post haste and shouted, Let
the train go, the legislature has adjourned
and Burlelgh got off at the crossing"
If anything unusual and inexplicabe hap
pened anywhere in Michigan during Bur
leigh's residence there it was promptly ex-
planned if Burleigh got off at the crossing, +"
near by. The writer was with him on an
elevator in Chicago one day, when, in an
eXcitabe manner and half addressing the
half dozen ladies who were present, the
colonel broke out with: well, did it in
self defense. He drew his knife and made
for me. and of course [ pulled my revolver
and shot him through the head, and his
brains spattered all over me. and l didn't
get over it for fifteen minutes"
Fancy the women peering at the perhaps
juStifiable murderer, note the climax of
this sudden confession, and judge the dit
ficulty the writer had to keep his face
straight Another day not long afterward
| was with him again on an elevator filled
with ladies, and he said, with tears in his
voice: well, if he is my brother l can't
defend him any longer, He says he
put the Paris green in the tea to kill rats,
but at any rate she drank the tea and died"
Then he took out his handkerchief and
began to weep. and the sally was so sudden
that to prevent the catastrophe of laughter
l was obliged to put my handkerchief to
my eyes and weep too.
| have seen him in hotel lobby rush up
to countrymal. and say; My dear boy,
I'm delighted to see you. l want to intro
duce you to an old friend of NINE" and
lead him all the while to the middle of the
lobby. Then saying ''wait a moment" he
would rush to another man, repeat the
same words and lead him to where the first
was standing and saying, ''NOw shake
hands," leave them both grasping each
others hands and shouting: "What name?'
His jokes, whether of the practical variety
or not, are always spontaneous and original,
and he never repeats himself. A lady and
gentleman. perfect strangers to each other
OF to Col. Burleigh, were passing along the
street in Chicago, when the lady's shawl
caught in the gentlemanS button. Col.
Burleigh saw the incident, and stepping to
the rescue, released the button and simply
said: ~ on seem to be very much attached
to each other" raised his hat and passed
on. They were both inclined to be mad
over the remark, but finally got to laughing
about it. got acquainted. and. to make a
long story short, finally married, and learn
ing who the stranger who 'insulted" them
was. sent him cards to their wedding
While on the road with his company his
jokes while away the tedious hours. The
passengers on one of the express trains were
Mortified one day to see young man rush
through the train with his head all
gore pursued by a man with a battle-ay.
The Infatuated pursuer was Burleigh. The
gore was painted on and the battle-ax was
prop" Mr.. Burleigh was once playing
the ghost to the Hamlet of an actor whose
support was in the main abominably bad,
Business had been very poor and the last
night of the season before a very small
audience the melancholy Dane was driving
forth his chestnutty soliloquY when the
audience was electrified by seeing small
boy in the ghosts garments approach Ham
let and say in piping voice: Father. 1
am thy son. ''Burleigh got off at the
crossing" What folly, all this, say you?
My dear fellow there isn't lau ghter enough
in the world to 90 round, and the man who
innocently adds to our store is benefactor
be he humorist by profession or tempera-
ment. +. z. w.